Honors and awards

• 2013-2016 Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier II “The Neurobiology of Chronic Pain”
• 2010-2014 Salary Award (Bourse de chercheur-boursier “Junior 1”) – Fonds de la recherche en santé Quebec
• 2010 Early Career Award Canadian Pain Society
• 2009 International Association for the Study of Pain Early Career Award

Grants

• 2019 - 2021 EUR 56'934 European Center for Chiropractic Research Excellence: Phenotyping low back pain - a prospective observational pilot study
• 2019 - 2021 CHF 200 000 Zurich University – Clinical Research Priority Program: Pain – from phenotypes to mechanisms
• 2019 EUR 56'934 EuroSpine Task force: Back Pain Phenotypes and Relation to Outcome
• 2019 - 2023 CHF 632'000 Funding agency: SNF Role: PI The influence of danger signals on nociceptive processing: from healthy subjects to chronic pain patients
• 2018 CHF 3´400 Funding agency: SNF Role: Co-Investigator Spine Tango Conservative - Workshop
• 2017 - 2018 EUR 200´000 Funding agency: PRODEX (Foundation of the European Space Agency) Role: Co-Investigator The effect of changing gravity on spinal stiffness
• 2016 - 2017 CAD 40'000 Funding agency: FRQ-S Network for Oral and Bone Health Research Role: Co-Investigator Transition from acute to chronic painful temporomandibular disorders: a prospective cohort study
• 2008 - 2016 USD 2.8 million As an independent investigator at McGill, in the form of operating funds, infrastructure awards, and salary support

Scientific projects

• Sensitization along the neuraxis and its potential to explain clinical back pain phenotypes
• The role of danger and safety signals in sensitizing the pain processing system
• The influence of pain chronicity on outcome
• Localized vs. widespread pain and hypersensitivity and implications for outcome

Other activities

Talks and Media

2019

• Schmerzkategorien – nozizeptiv – neuropathisch – noziplastisch. Update Schmerzmedizin für die Praxis; Swiss Paraplegic Center, Nottwil, Switzerland
• Interactions between pain and reward. Inaugural Meeting of the SGSS SIG CANoP, Fribourg, Switzerland
• Pain sensitization and the contribution of supraspinal factors. Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany,
• Interactions between pain and reward. Research colloquium Institute of Systems Neuroscience, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Germany

2018

• The interaction between pain and reward from the human perspective. Symposium, World Congress on Pain, Boston, USA
• Psychosocial factors play an important role in chronic pain – but which role exactly? Pain Mechanisms and Therapeutics Conference, Taormina, Sicily
• How much pain reduction matters for neck pain patients undergoing chiropractic treatment? European Chiropractor Union Conference, Budapest, Hungary
• Basic pain mechanisms – generalized hypersensitivity and spatial pain extent as proxies for central sensitization. European Chiropractor Union Conference, Budapest, Hungary
• Structural changes in the brain in chronic back pain patients. 8th NEUROspine meeting Bern, Switzerland
• Special Guest Lecture – Supraspinal pain modulation. 5th Annual General Meeting and Conference of The Royal College of Chiropractors, London, England

2017

• Pain from the human perspective. International Fall Meeting of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bochum, Germany
• Multivariate Decoding of Sensorimotor Brain Activity during Lumbar Pressure Stimulation accurately identifies chronic low back pain. European Chiropractor Convention, Cyprus May
• The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in pain – the human perspective. Symposium The medial prefrontal cortex and pain. Annual Meeting of the American Pain Society, Pittsburgh
• Supraspinal Pain Processing and Modulation. Schmerzkaleidoskop. CE activity Dentistry.St Moritz
• Multivariate decoding of sensorimotor brain activity during lumbar pressure stimulation accurately identifies chronic low back pain patients. European Chiropractic Union Convention, Cyprus
• Chronic pain from the perspective of the brain. Colloque de Formation, Lausanne

2016

• Refresher course "Brain circuits in acute and chronic pain". 16th World Congress of Pain, Yokohama, Japan
• Basic science of acute and chronic pain. Post-graduate course ‘Current knowledge in the diagnosis, epidemiology, biomarkers and management of orofacial pain’, Montreal, Canada.
• Grey matter alterations in chronic pain – where do we stand? Keynote lecture at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Australian Pain Society, Pert, Australia.
• Pain and the reward circuitry: Interactions in acute and chronic pain. Keynote lecture at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Australian Pain Society, Pert, Australia.
• Behavioral and neurophysiological interactions between pain and reward. Linkoeping University, Sweden.
• Behavioral and neurophysiological interactions between pain and reward. Mini-symposium Zurich University, Switzerland.

2015

• Is a responsive default mode network required for successful working memory task performance? Research Seminar, University of Montreal.
• Tagesanzeiger - On our study on increasing placebo effects.
• Wie Schmerz entsteht (‘Pain generation‘). FachMedetage 04/15, symposium for lawyers, Zurich, Switzerland.
• Musculoskeletal Pain: Translating basic models and mechanisms. Symposium at the 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society, Palm Springs, U.S.A.
• Interactions between pain and reward - behavioral and neurophysiological findings. Pain Seminar Series Center for Pain Research and Innovation, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

2014

• Imaging pain processing in the brain – the case of the interaction between pain and reward. Key note speaker Pain Day, University of Bochum.
• Pain and Motivation. Neurobiology of Pain and Itch meeting, San Francisco, U.S.A.
• Featured in the National ME/CFS Action Network newsletter
• Imaging pain in health and disease. University of Minnesota.
• The Clinical Management of Acute and Chronic Pain – Basic Science. McGill Faculty of Dentistry, Continued Education Program.
• Chronic pain. Université de Montreal, Faculty of Dentistry Retreat.

2013

• Imaging pain and reward systems. CIHR Teambuilding workshop on Orofacial Pain, Dorval, Quebec, Canada.
• Neurophysiological and neurochemical underpinnings of the interaction between pain and reward. Pharmacology and Toxicology Seminar, University of Zuerich, Switzerland.
• Supraspinal pain processing and modulation. 1er Curso de Dolor Crónico de la Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina (web-based lecture).
• The pain-reward connection: evidence form human volunteers. Canadian Pain Society Annual Conference, Winnipeg, Canada
• Pain-reward interactions in human volunteers. 46th Annual Winter Conference on Brain Research, Breckensridge, U.S.A.
• Spying on the brain – cerebral brain alterations in chronic pain. Pain lecture series of the Center for Pain Research at Pittsburgh University, U.S.A.

2012

• Functional and structural MRI techniques for the investigation of pain. Refresher course, 14th World Congress of Pain, Milan, Italy
• Brain alterations in patients with chronic pain. 1st OMFS Research Day, McGill University
• Annals of Neurology - on the state of imaging in regard to its role in helping understand/diagnose pain.
• The changing image of pain. J. Earl Wynands Royal College Keynote lecture, 53rd Annual McGill Anesthesia Update

Publications

• Publications / Citations